How Social Video Can Build Customer Experience

When someone searches Google, how many of your competitors come up in the search? Hundreds? Thousands? Because of this, it is easy for your customers to view what you do as a commodity. One of the last chances for you to stand out from the crowd is customer experience.

Customer experience isn’t just a conversation for the marketing department. It affects every area of your company, from HR to IT. When we think of customer experience, we think of Nordstrom, Starbucks, or Apple. Some companies are even creating ‘experience’ departments. The goal is to create a system that will, in turn, create happy customers who will do business with you for years to come and tell their friends about it.

This idea of customer experience is bigger than just video, but I want to look at some ideas on how video can be a part of each step of your customer experience strategy. While video is not a magic solution that will suddenly make your company handsome, rich, and wise, it is one more tool in your customer experience toolbox that can set you apart from your competitors. Let’s look at a 5 Step strategy.

Step #1: Potential customers need to find you.

Once you have a video that lets people get to know you, the place to start online is YouTube. This video should also be placed on all of the social media sites where your target audience can be found. Your company can also run a video ad words campaign; which allows you to focus on your target. LinkedIn now allows for video ads, so keep it in mind as you think about where to post your video. Make sure you keep your ad short and to the point. One idea is to make a shorter version of another video that you have already created.

Step #2: Potential customers need like what you have to offer.

Now that you have used video to get them interested in what you have to offer, they may visit your website. The idea with this short video that is specifically on your website is to get them to like you and like what you have to offer them. Here, you should have a video on the home page of your website that is easy to find that talks about your product and possibly leads them to a video case study or a testimonial. Another great idea is to invite them to sign up for your video newsletter. You can use a services like VideoEmail to help deliver the video newsletter.

Step #3: Potential customers contact you to come in for a sales meeting.

With this step, you should have a video about your company available that you can show them. This again should be short and to the point and you should ask them if they have already watched this video before the meeting. Asking them provides you with some feedback as to who and how people are watching your videos.

Step #4: They have made the step from potential customer to customer and have made a purchase from you.

The video that fits best at this step is a video thanking them for their purchase. This video should include links to support videos for the product or service which they have purchased.

Step #5: The goal: They are happy customers who have had a good experience.

If you’ve managed to get through steps 1-4 but failed on this step, it could be a problem because you want them to continue to do business with you and, ultimately, you want them to tell their friends about the great experience they had. A video that can help you with this step is to have one that shares information about complimentary services customers could purchase. Create videos once a month, or quarter, that are interesting to watch, relevant to the target audience, and that reflect the company well. A great idea for this is to create a video that reminds them how to get the most of out of their purchase, including a call to action to share this information with others who might be interested.

The idea is to create series of videos that, once your target audience finds them, they feel like you understand their needs and know who they are.

This monthly Social Media and Video column is contributed by Jayson Duncan. Jayson is an Orange County, California filmmaker and owner of the video production company Miller Farm Media. In 2003, Jayson began using video to help others tell their stories through his video production company, Miller Farm Media. He has created videos for Fortune 50 companies. In his spare time Jayson enjoys playing his guitar, song writing, and spending time with his wife, Gretchin.

About Jayson Duncan

This monthly Social Media and Video column is contributed by Jayson Duncan. Jayson is an Orange County, California filmmaker and owner of the video production company Miller Farm Media. In 2003, Jayson began using video to help others tell their stories through his video production company, Miller Farm Media. He has created videos for Fortune 50 companies. In his spare time Jayson enjoys playing his guitar, song writing, and spending time with his wife, Gretchin.